Monday, September 01, 2014

One inch Hexagon Purse

Another day, another piecing project to keep me occupied on the sofa. I am mad for it. Rachel and I decided to make mini hexagon purses. There are two that inspired me. This one by Jessie or this one by Leila. The second comes with a tutorial so I went for that. I finally went through all the dusty bags of Liberty fabric that mum gave me and separated it into tiny scraps and folded pieces which are now in their own special box. Some of them smell of my aunt, which I know is an odd thing to say, but she was infested with moth and was always using various moth deterrents which stank. Whenever I smell that same caustic, musty smell I think of her. One bag smells of that so I am afeared it will have moth, but I just stuffed it all in together so it's too late now!

My hexagons are going to be 1" as I got a bit scared when I saw how small the 1/2" templates were. They seem tiny at 1". I got my templates from Totally Patchwork. They don't seem to show any templates less than 1 1/4" on their website, but the man on the stall at Birmingham assured me you could just ring up and buy more. Maybe I'll make the proper smaller version if I feel bold.

My flex band is 5" though instead of 3 1/2", probably because I wasn't thinking when I saw it at Birmingham.

I've been using my wonder clips a bit to secure my fabric but you don't really need to. I find little appliqué pins a bit easier to be honest. but mostly I just use my fingers. It makes me think that 1/2" wouldn't be too bad after all. I stopped using the fabric glue as I find it hard to get the papers out afterwards and you don't get that satisfactory bump in the fabric edge to sew into. I am probably not gluing well, but I just thought it easier to sit their mindlessly sewing.

I didn't even cut my shapes very accurately but the more I do this kind of work, the more I realise you don't really have to. You can keep them square if you like. I just try not to waste fabric. So you can imagine me just dipping into my scrap bag, sniffing moth smell and watching the Bake Off. That's my rock n roll lifestyle.